Joint address of the St.Charlian Government and Parliament in response to Lethler's accusations
Citizens of the Federal Republic of St.Charlie Members of the General Assembly Members of the Intermicronational Community We find ourselves forced to momentarily suspend our Expo 2010 duties to refute the unjust, if not curious, accusations formulated against our Government and Parliament, and in particular against our Prime Minister, by Mr. Robert Lethler. Before we start, we wanted to clearify a few misunderstandings we have found in Mr. Lethler’s response. First and foremostly, the text published yesterday evening on the St.Charlian Observer was not an article or a story, as Mr. Lethler has for 4 times insisted on calling, but a press release and therefore, exactly like any Reuters dispatch, it is impossible for it to be "unbalanced" or "biased", as it is simply a faithful reporting of facts. A second misunderstanding, and one that has left us quite astonished, is that the St.Charlian Government had requested for the private ballots to be publicly disclosed. We kindly ask all readers to read our press release and kindly point us towards this request, as it is possible we may have missed it. We also find ourselves in need to comment on the OAM, notwithstanding its totale irrelevance and extraneity to the news. We would also like to remind Mr. Lethler and all our readers that Prime Minister Reinhardt voted against an amendment to Resolution 75 which directly condemned Mr. Lethler and the NUP for the Erusian Civil War. We also ask ourselves about the relevance of the OAM’s refusal of stronger links with the GUM in relation to the news published. But let us return to misunderstandings, the final one we wish to clarify is the involvement of our Prime Minister. Although the press release was indeed published by Mr. Reinhardt, it expresses not his own opinions but those of two members of the General Assembly. In particular, District President Barbara Ruvolo, while a member of the National Party, did not seek the Prime Minister’s approval, as he was occupied with the Expo; and indeed was only to become aware of the situation just before the publishing of the news. While Mr. Lethler presents the opposite, the two MPs acted in an independent fashion and in good faith. Both had never actively participated in the proceedings of the GUM and were therefore not informed about the possiblity to cast private ballots, as well as the procedure of the second ballot; as anyone else, since it has never occurred in the history of the GUM. Mr. Lethler should therefore keep this in mind instead of accusing the Prime Minister of incompetence. Although he accuses the St.Charlian Government, Parliament and Prime Minister with derogatory terms of wishing to "bring down the GUM", we would like to remind all of the central and essential role played by the GUM in the Federal Republic’s growth and vice versa. Furthermore, St.Charlie esteems in equal fashion both James Puchowski of Landashir and Guillaume Soergèl of Sandus, having worked alongside both for a long time. We therefore find very insulting the fact that Mr. Lethler believes it to be reasonable to speculate on personal suppositions. Moreover, both Pincer and Ruvolo would like to point out that they would have acted in the same manner whatever the result. Along with the General Assembly we find the 12-hour limit for the validation of the result of the ballot ridiculously short. Apart from this non-trivial detail, we have effectively found ourselves excluded from the democratic process of the election. And we find this unacceptable for two reasons. Firstly because, whatever stated by Mr. Lethler, we had given notice of our absence for obvious reasons way back and secondly because we were not even informed, priority or not, of the possibility of a second ballot. Now that we are talking about voting, we would like to inform Mr. Lethler that this announcement to the St.Charlian people for reasons to him alone known is redundant and unnecessary; both because the referendum is a direct expression of the will of the people and also because St.Charlie did not comment, respecting the peoples’ rights, when Erusia, through a referendum, decided to leave the OAM. Bringing this back to Mr. Lethler, we find his false allegations concerning presumed accusations to his person slander to say the least, as his name was not once mentioned in the text. In particular, neither Pincer nor Ruvolo have ever questioned the result of the election, but rather the proceedings that brought to it. And talking about slander, we find Mr. Lethler’s comment on Mr. Maggiore, at the moment absent, comical if not hypocritical; since he refered to him as an “unreasonable person” a few weeks ago. In conclusion, we do not even take into consideration the idea of an apology, and on the other hand, we request one from Mr. Lehler himself, who has lapsed into pure and gratuitous slander (such as "cronies" and "autocratic") against the St.Charlian Prime Minister and therefore against our whole people. Having clarified all misunderstandings and having layed out the true facts regarding this matter, we officially announce that, till the conclusion of the referendum, all members of the St.Charlian Government and Parliament will maintain a no-comment policy and that therefore any personal comment by any member of the aforementioned institutions are absolutely not representative of the political line of the St.Charlian Government and Parliament. We are sorry for the length of this statement, but we have found it most necessary. Thank you all for your attention and good evening. Rt. Hon. Alexander Reinhardt OBS :Prime Minister Heinrich Schneider OBS :Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister :::::Representing the St.Charlian Government Magnus de Armis :President of the General Assembly :::::Representing the St.Charlian Parliament